OHSA Bulletin Addresses Removal of Mold

Word on the Street    

Old Black Water

Response to Mercury Spill Raises Concern
By Steve Sauer

The theft and spillage of a vial of mercury at a Washington, D.C., high school by a group of students and the subsequent spread of the liquid metal in area homes and public transportation not only increased awareness about the element's harmful effects on humans but also raised concerns over uses among some who believe sprinkling mercury in their homes brings good luck.

At the order of city health officials, students, faculty and staff of Ballou High School placed clothes worn the day of the incident into plastic bags and delivered them to the school's parking lot for testing on Monday, Oct. 6 - four days after the mercury was released.

It was the first day back to school after a three-day weekend full of questions about what had happened there on the previous Thursday, Oct. 2, when school officials shut down the building and dismissed students in the afternoon. That morning, one student removed a 250-milliliter container of mercury from an unlocked laboratory on the second floor and proceeded to share the discovery with friends.

Students were playing with the liquid metal throughout the day, both inside and outside. Some mercury puddles in hallways were swept away by custodial staff, releasing potentially harmful mercury vapors into the halls. A 911 phone call was placed just before 2 p.m., and a HAZMAT team arrived within minutes. City health officials were soon there too. Students, having evacuated the building, were sent home at 3 p.m. after being told by D.C. school administrators to wash their hands with soap and cold water.

One D.C. council member told the Washington Post he felt the response that afternoon was lacking. "They probably should have kept the kids there and done the requisite testing and treatment to make sure those kids didn't go and expose someone else," Kevin P. Chavous told the newspaper.

"There's a case to be made about getting the kids out of the building and a case to be made concerning the possibility they might bring it home with them," said Dr. S. Mark Wilhelm, president of Mercury Technology Services in Tomball, Texas. "In a perfect world, they would have been decontaminated - bathed and clothes changed at school - before going home."

Although classes were canceled on Friday, Oct. 3, the building was not officially closed until Saturday, Oct. 4. Staff members were even permitted to reenter the building on the evening of the spill.

On Sunday, Oct. 5, the city's health department asked students, staff and visitors to bag the clothes and shoes they wore on the day of the spill in plastic bags and bring the bags to the school parking lot for mercury vapor testing on Monday morning.

"Mercury vapor analyzers were used for both individual and bagged clothing screenings as [deemed] appropriate," said David Sternberg, a spokesman for Region III of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Philadelphia.

"There are potential health risks involved with any mercury spill," Sternberg added. "At the current time, no students, staff or Ballou visitors have reported any illnesses or hospitalizations related to acute mercury exposure."

Classes have been held at alternate locations since Oct. 6 because the school building remains shut down without any indication as to when it will reopen. In the meantime, more than 120 residences have been tested for elevated mercury levels, of which more than 10 have tested positive.

Sternberg said home testing involves air monitors that "have the capability of detecting mercury vapor at well below the criteria used for this spill, which is one microgram per cubic meter."

The Post also reported that according to some religious customs, Caribbean residents in New York and Chicago "leave [mercury] in open containers, burn it in candles, mix it in perfume and sprinkle it around their homes and cars for good luck." Similar beliefs are being reported among Latino and Caribbean people in the Washington area, which would account for high levels of mercury found in some homes last month that were unrelated to the spill at Ballou High School.

Wilhelm's advice regarding such uses: "Don't do it. Don't ever do it! There is nothing magical or therapeutic about mercury. If you breathe it, it will either kill you or make you crazy - plain and simple."

Health experts say prolonged exposure to mercury vapors can cause brain or nerve damage. These adverse health effects are more concentrated in young, developing children than in adults, based on body weight, Wilhelm explained.

One of the questions most prevalent among parents in the aftermath of the school's closing centered on why the mercury was left unlocked and accessible to anyone in a high school chemistry lab. The school explained that the chemistry laboratory was temporarily in the process of being moved.

A deeper probing question asks what place the element has in any high school lab at all. "Given the risks, a science teacher would need to make a very good case to have the stuff around," commented Wilhelm.

"I would think the risks outweigh the benefits. If you want to teach about mercury, show a picture."

Asked whether the federal government's response would be any different if a similar situation occurred in a school in a rural area in the middle of the United States, Sternberg said he is confident the appropriate EPA region would be on the scene as quickly as possible. "The response times in various cities might vary somewhat, but we would still have to mobilize people," he said.

In an Oct. 22 article for the weekly newspaper Education Week, a member of the National Science Teachers Association provides recommendations for schools to handle mercury spills. Kenneth R. Roy, head of the association's Safety Advisory Board, says schools' first response should be to isolate the spill area and to cut the ventilation there so that mercury vapors will not be transported through the HVAC system to other areas. Roy adds that some chemical supply companies offer specially designed cleanup kits that teachers may use on minor spills.

Elsewhere in the article, Education Week reporter Michelle Galley writes that mercury spills have caused at least seven U.S. schools to evacuate this year. She also lists 11 states that have introduced programs or passed legislation to prohibit mercury from schools: Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

A new Safety and Health Information Bulletin issued Oct. 14 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration gives recommendations on how custodians and building management and maintenance personnel can prevent and remove mold growth.

The bulletin, titled "A Brief Guide to Mold in the Workplace," is aimed at the reduction of health risks associated with mold. It is designed to protect workers involved in the prevention and cleanup of mold. OSHA, like other federal government agencies, acknowledges that indoor exposure to mold can cause asthma attacks and other types of allergic reactions in some individuals, including hay fever-type symptoms, skin rashes and irritation to the eyes, noses, throat and lungs.

The meat of the remediation procedures should be familiar to most people. OSHA identifies the same four levels of mold contamination listed in the Guidelines on Assessment and Remediation of Fungi in Indoor Environments, first adopted by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in 1993. But whereas the NYC guidelines go on to explain how to remediate HVAC systems, the OSHA bulletin stops short of Level 5, instructing readers either to contact the National Air Duct Cleaners Association or to consult the EPA guide "Should You Have the Air Ducts in Your Home Cleaned?"

The NYC guidelines specify that remediations can be performed by regular building maintenance staff with, at the very least, the supervision of environmental health and safety professionals holding relevant experience. The OSHA bulletin follows these recommendations but leaves the professional judgment up to the building maintenance staff. OSHA Administrator John Henshaw said, "By reading this bulletin, workers with little or no experience with mold remediation may be able to determine if a mold problem exists and whether the contamination can be managed in-house or if outside assistance is required."

Word on the Street

• SCIENCE FICTION
  "There's no such thing as mold," an insurance adjuster reportedly advised a roomful of company leaders in the building industry. The West Coast adjustor's taunt continued, "So sue me!" This professional advice is now being heeded quite literally; a lawsuit against the insurance company has been filed on behalf of a building management firm. Sources on the plaintiffs' side say no further information can be divulged at this time due to the ongoing litigation.
     
• LET THE BIDDER BEWARE
  Refrigerant being sold on eBay? We're not kidding. The Air Conditioning Contractors of America notified the auction Web site that a 30-pound cylinder of Freon R-22 was being peddled online and targeted toward 609 certification holders, who by law cannot legally buy refrigerant in quantities of 20 pounds or more. ACCA contacted the seller, Decker, hoping to close the deal on the refrigerant, they say he seemed undaunted when informed of provisions in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which specifies that only those with 608 certification could buy such a cylinder. According to ACCA, Decker said he has "no way of keeping up with the laws." ACCA President and CEO Paul Stalknecht brought the incident to the attention of eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman.
      
• ASSOCIATION GOING DOWN?
  Hard times for Texas mold remediators seem to have taken a toll on an association based in the state. Industry insiders speculate that the International Association of Mold Remediation Specialists is in trouble. For months, affiliated company Enviro-Mold has been canceling its Mold Boot Camp classes in Texas. Now, a prominent association head jumped ship as Anne Jameson resigned from her role as IAMRS executive director effective Oct. 21.
     
• YOUR PREFERENCE?
  A question you'll no longer be asked when dining in some Maryland cities: "Smoking or non-smoking?" A smoking ban went into effect in bars and restaurants in Montgomery County despite an eleventh-hour legal challenge to prevent the measure. Courts kept a similar countywide smoking ban approved in 1999 from ever taking effect, but the new smoking ban that passed in July of this year received a circuit court's blessing on Oct. 8., forcing restaurants and bars to go smoke-free the following day. Lawmakers supporting the regulation cited indoor air quality and the health of workers and patrons of establishments as reasoning for the decree. Despite some positive reaction among customers, many restaurateurs and bar owners said they feared they would lose business to nearby counties or the District of Columbia. Attorneys representing them vowed to press on in finding some loophole that would eventually overturn the no-smoking policy. Meanwhile, members of the city council in Washington, D.C., have introduced a measure to curb smoking in all businesses in the District. Citywide bans in New York and Boston were implemented earlier this year.
     
• VICE PRESIDENT WANTED
  The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers is seeking an executive vice president. In conjunction with JDG Associates Ltd., based in Rockville, Md., ASHRAE is seeking someone to "administer an annual budget of $18 million with a staff compliment of approximately 100." Other duties include managing headquarters activities, establishing an organizational structure and representing ASHRAE interests to other technical organizations. More information on the position can be obtained by contacting Paul Belford by e-mail at Belford@jdgsearch.com or by phone at (301) 340-2210.
  
• COULDN'T STOP LEAVITT
  The Senate voted to approve Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to assume the role of administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Senate Democrats had paused confirmation hearings in October to investigate past EPA policy under the Bush administration. They retracted their stance following a White House adviser's promise that the federal government would reassess any lasting health risks from exposures at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.
  In September, some environmental and consumer groups banded together in an effort to "Stop Leavitt." A Web site bearing exactly that name was launched to collect signatures against Leavitt's nomination. StopLeavitt.com contains extensive background data on Leavitt's environmental record, relevant quotes from environmental groups and links to up-to-date articles written about him. Another Web site sold "Love It or Leavitt" shirts and hats - and even an infant creeper with the design.
     
• DRAW THE LINE
  Details of a new government study on mold levels in non-compliant homes were presented at last month's three-day Aerias symposium in Atlanta. A news article at www.aerias.org explains that the research, conducted by Air Quality Sciences for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, effectively "established general guidelines of what is 'normal' in urban homes in Atlanta." "Because the homes that were studied are representative of the majority of types of homes found in the southeast, these general guidelines can be used to assess mold problems in homes in other southeastern urban centers," AQS President Anthony G. Worthan told Aerias.
    
• BUTTERED "VOC"CORN
  Jim Jetter made an entire room gasp as one. The EPA research project engineer said emissions from microwave popcorn is among topics being studied in the Office of Research and Development's facility in Research Triangle Park, N.C. When Jetter mentioned this during a presentation at the quarterly meeting of the Federal Interagency Committee on Indoor Air Quality on Oct. 22, it took nearly all of the committee members and visitors by surprise. The EPA research goes back to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's discovery of high levels of volatile organic compounds in plants where microwave popcorn is produced. The New England Journal of Medicine reported last year that eight workers at a Missouri popcorn production plant in 2000 were diagnosed with a rare lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans; the Missouri plant is joined by at least six others like it, in which workers have the same disease. If VOCs are emitted during the heating of popcorn, then workers who pop and open bags of the buttery stuff may be subject to peak exposures. An EPA research newsletter, Inside IAQ, states that the EPA is working to identify compounds emitted while popping and opening bags of popcorn and then to evaluate these compounds for those two activities. Ken Krebs and Jacky Rosati are the EPA's principal investigators on the two-phase study. Krebs said last month that he expected research on the project could be published as early as March or April 2004.

Hurricane Isabel whipped through the Washington, D.C., area Sept. 18-19, causing billions of dollars in storm damage and leaving millions without electricity. Several of our staff members suffered property damage to their homes. Some were without electricity for more than a week.

The day after Isabel, our office building was virtually unscathed. We lost a few tree branches but experienced no flooding, no loss of electricity and no wind damage. We did close the office during the worst day of the storm, but our only loss was one day of staff productivity. We felt lucky, especially since the storm hit 10 days before a major conference being organized by our company. There was a lot of pre-conference work to do, and getting it done was the focus of nearly our entire staff.

Then, four days later, we found ourselves up the proverbial creek, literally, with no sign of a paddle.

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, I was driving into work when my cell phone rang. It was Crystal, one of our staff who works the 8 a.m.-4 p.m. shift. "Glenn, there's lots of water in my office!" she exclaimed.

The night before, we had a heavy rainstorm that dropped about three inches in three hours, so I figured some water might have come in through our leaky fire escape door. "Start moving things out of the water, and I'll be there in a few minutes," I told Crystal.

When I got to the building, I raced straight downstairs to where Crystal works. Her workstation is one of three within a large, open room that spans the length of our building. The back of the room has a large storage area. Water covered 90 percent of the floor. In the lowest corner of the building where the floor slopes a few degrees, water was pooled about three inches deep.

I was perplexed about where all the water came from, but I hastily put my energy into salvaging what I could. Boxes were stacked high at the low end of the room, and these had to be moved to dry ground. Computer and electrical equipment were likewise primary concerns.

A few minutes into the moving work, another staff person came down and said, "Well, I guess you know about the problem upstairs too?" I hadn't even looked upstairs. I charged up, and - sure enough - there was the source of our problem.

Hundreds of gallons of sewage had come out of the commode upstairs. The surrounding carpet acted as a filter, leaving the solid waste upstairs while the fluid waste made its way through the floor and out light fixtures in the office below. This was not a flood - this was a black water disaster of the worst magnitude.

I happen to know more about black water than most people. I edited IICRC's water damage restoration standard and spent over a year working in close collaboration with the industry's most knowledgeable sewage remediation experts. A sewage backup is just about the worst environmental disaster a building can suffer. So, I sent my staff home and set to work finding professional help.
Since it was just four days since Isabel, I figured finding a disaster/water restoration company that was able to come right out would be impossible. Thankfully, I was wrong. Forty-five minutes after my call to Servpro of Bethesda/North Potomac, Md., two workers arrived with wet vacuums, industrial trash bags and an arsenal of cleaning equipment. I stayed around and watched as the Servpro technicians went to work. An hour later, three more Servpro personnel were onsite.

By 10 p.m., Servpro extracted the water and waste, removed the carpet, bagged and removed everything saturated by the sewer water, cut away drywall that had been contaminated with sewage, opened the ceiling and removed or cleaned affected areas as applicable, applied antimicrobial chemicals liberally to affected areas, HEPA vacuumed the entire office, put in place dehumidification equipment and set up air scrubbers on both floors of our office. Servpro left our offices spotless. The next morning, we reopened for business.

Remediation on this level was remarkable to see. IE Communications owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to Servpro of Bethesda/North Potomac. John Hargrove, president of the company, monitored the project closely and ensured that the necessary labor and equipment were immediately dispatched. Jay Germain, who led the remediation effort, coordinated the work smoothly and was very conscientious about involving me in decisions regarding the extent to which demolition of walls, floors and ceilings was carried out. Jay Odell, an estimator who stopped by to drop off some equipment, saw the extent of the mess and heard about how essential it was that we restore the office to a sanitary condition quickly. Even though Jay was done working for the day, he donned protective equipment and joined his coworkers for the last six hours of the cleanup.

The total cost of the sewage backup, including remediation, lost contents and remodeling, is estimated at $25,000-35,000. Our loss would have been far greater if reaction to the disaster wasn't so rapid and if remediation hadn't been performed so thoroughly.

We had our offices tested a week after the disaster. First, a local mold dog owner brought Barney over to sniff the place out. He alerted his trainer to four of five suspect areas. Samples taken from each area showed trace amounts of common indoor mold but nothing to be alarmed about. We believe the mold detected by the dog was preexisting.

We didn't rely on the mold dog alone. Additional air testing and surface testing also showed the environment safe for occupation.

Overall, it was a textbook case of sewage remediation done right. In addition to expressing appreciation to Servpro of Bethesda/North Potomac, we are thankful to the many readers and friends of this newspaper, including several IAQA members, who heard about our disaster and generously offered their professional services.